FORA making progress on munitions cleanup

Fort Ord Reuse Authority officials and their contractors say the munitions cleanup on 3,340 acres of the former Army base is on schedule and on budget.

And they have 2,370 explosives, 29,400 pounds of munitions debris and more than 1 million hand-dug holes to show for it.

If the pace holds steady, that's about $95 per hole.

To FORA officials, that's the cost of ensuring community safety before the land is turned over for development, habitat and public recreation. Had FORA not sought a $97.7 million federal grant for privatization of the project, said Executive Officer Michael Houlemard, the Army would still be out there clearing explosives a decade or more from now.

"I'd do it again," he said. "Without question."

But it's a price tag that raises hackles among open-space advocates who have been using much of the land without incident for years, who believe the development is not needed, and who oppose the proposed extension of FORA itself.

"We certainly don't oppose the land being cleaned up so it's safe," said Michael Salerno, spokesman for Keep Fort Ord Wild. "But it's been 20 years and a lot of the interior of the base is still rotting. Why did we spend $100 million as a gateway to more residential development when there are 5,800 units already approved?"

Cleanup team

Salerno points to the number of foreclosed or delinquent properties on the Peninsula to argue housing development on Fort Ord is unnecessary.

Local officials say perceived delays in the munitions project should not cloud accomplishments on the base or the need to complete the economic development component of the reuse plan.

The ordnance remediation project, dubbed ESCA for the Environmental Services Cooperative Agreement, dates back to 2004. Frustrated by the snail's pace of the Army's munitions cleanup on Fort Ord, Houlemard and the agency's Washington attorney, Barry Steinberg, began exploring regulatory avenues that would allow an early transfer of the base and privatization of the cleanup.

As the potential grew, FORA initiated a competitive process for a private team that could determine realistic costs, help negotiate an Army grant and complete the work.

The contract went to the team of ARCADIS, Weston Solutions and Westcliffe Engineers, though a memo released to The Herald indicates URS engineering corporation was initially judged the best competitor. Houlemard said ARCADIS won the nod because it had a local office and agreed to complete the research and negotiation phase for free, assuming the risk that the Army would refuse to relinquish control.

Kristi Reimer, vice president and project manager for ARCADIS, said the company invested more than $1 million into the first phase. For its two-year effort, ARCADIS and its partners got a $72 million contract.

Insurance policy

In 2007, the Army issued a $97.7 million grant to FORA to cover all of the project's costs. Of that, $82.1 million purchased a fixed-price environmental insurance policy that guarantees completion on time and at cost. The insurance company, Chartis, doles out payment to the contractors as work is done.

The remainder of the grant paid for taxes on the policy or was retained by FORA for administrative costs, payments to regulators who shadow the workers and a $1 million self-insurance policy that has seen no claims.

The project came under fire in recent months after the environmental group Keep Fort Ord Wild sued for public records documenting how the money was spent. The records were largely released after the group and The Herald declined to take Houlemard's word that the "cleanup project is highly successful and all funds are accounted for and reported on a very regular basis."

Defending the project

Houlemard, Reimer and Stan Cook, FORA's project manager, recently sat down to defend the project. Like proud parents, they took a visitor on a tour, pointing out areas where chaparral is returning to land that was mowed and cleared of explosives. Much of the acreage will remain in permanent open-space habitat.

Reimer said the work is on schedule and slightly under budget — 70 percent done, with 67 percent of the budget, or about $55 million, spent. Most of the unfinished work is regulatory clearance, Reimer said. Only 9 percent of the known munitions cleanup remains.

Back in the FORA offices, she displayed a recently created map showing the project's progress. It is one of many visual aids posted in a community information room that has been enhanced since Keep Fort Ord Wild's lawsuit.

Color-coded to explain progress on various parcels, the map shows 35 percent of the 3,340 acres in "celebratory pink," land that has been cleared by all state and federal regulators and awaits release by Chartis.

Reimer said she is working with the insurance company to arrange release of the properties as they receive regulatory clearance, rather than awaiting project completion.

A large part of Parker Flats, including the land proposed for the controversial Monterey Downs project, could be released within two months. The area was largely cleaned by the Army before it transferred the property.

Houlemard said state and federal regulators keep a tight rein on the project, both for quality of the work and timeliness of completion. If FORA fails on either front, it faces fines. There have been none.

Trying to stay accountable

A verbal encyclopedia of acronyms, Houlemard said he communicates with the Environmental Protection Agency, state Department of Toxic Substances Control and other government regulators on a daily basis. Records released to The Herald show monthly reports to the agencies detailing the work done and the munitions uncovered.

Beyond the multiple levels of regulatory oversight, Reimer said, ARCADIS and Chartis have a private concern keeping them on track: profit. If ARCADIS doesn't finish the job on time to the satisfaction of regulators, it must finish the work at cost. Chartis has guaranteed overruns for up to $128 million.

"There's no incentive for us to draw this out," said Reimer. "And you can imagine (Chartis is) watching us."

With two years left in the contract, she added, "We wholeheartedly believe we will be able to deliver on time and at the budget we negotiated with FORA."

"FORA's doing a great job," he said. "We haven't had any issues. Everything is on track to be completed by the time FORA sunsets" in 2014.

Rotting barracks

That looming deadline is another reason Salerno and other open-space advocates are taking a keen interest in the remediation work. The state Legislature is considering extending FORA's shelf life for another 14 years to allow it time to complete a required Habitat Conservation Plan and reassessment of the base reuse plan.

But the conservation plan is expected to be complete by November, the reassessment by 2013. If the munitions project will be done by 2014, activists say, why is FORA needed? Transfer the property to the county and cities as intended and let them take over, says Salerno.

Standing in the parking lot of the Fort Ord Reuse Authority, it's not difficult to grasp the discontent. On one side stands FORA's beautiful new office. Houlemard's Mercedes is parked outside in his reserved parking space.

Turn around and the view is monopolized by dilapidated Army buildings, paint peeling, windows shattered, vacant relics of the base that closed in 1994, taking thousands of jobs. Houlemard's salary alone, currently $225,000 annually, will cost close to $5 million if FORA is extended another 14 years. That could tear down a lot of blight.

"The (General Services Administration) blows a bit less than $1 million on a party and it's national news. FORA has accomplished basically nothing of worth while spending $230 million, and not a peep from anyone," said Nick Wheeler, another member of Keep Fort Ord Wild. "It's appalling. At least the GSA guys had a good time."

Houlemard and others say the rotting barracks are still standing because of the poor economy, not FORA. The cost of tearing them down must be paid by developer fees, and the developers are only now beginning to come back.

Monterey City Manager Fred Meurer has been involved with base reuse from Day 1. Meurer, the former public works director for Fort Ord, gives FORA an "A" for meeting two of the "three E's" of the reuse plan: environment, education and economic development.

Nearly 20,000 of the 28,000 acres of the former base will remain open space, he notes, and CSU Monterey Bay is but one of several higher education facilities that have become reality. Only the economic redevelopment is lacking, he said, and that is because of the recession.

"I'm uncomfortable with what I'm sensing is a preconceived idea that we don't need any more development," said Meurer, who supports the extension. "We are not in a stable enough position in Monterey County to say we don't need any more jobs."

Supervisor Dave Potter, chairman of the FORA board, said FORA is needed to ensure a regional approach as the vision of the reuse plan is completed. He said the community owes it to the cities of Seaside and Marina, which bore the brunt of the economic blow when the Army closed Fort Ord.

"We made a commitment to Seaside and Marina that this is what we felt was appropriate development regionally and for those cities," he said. "To break those promises would be going back to the old days of the Peninsula telling them they don't know what's best for their community."